I spent five years at Forbes writing about business and leadership, attracting nearly one million unique visitors to Forbes.com each month. While here, I assistant edited the annual World’s 100 Most Powerful Women package and helped launch and grow ForbesWoman.com. I've appeared on CBS, CNBC, MSNBC and E Entertainment and speak often at conferences and events on women's leadership topics. I graduated summa cum laude from New York University with degrees in journalism and sociology and was honored with a best in business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) in 2012. My work has appeared in Businessweek, Ladies’ Home Journal, The Aesthete and Acura Style. I live in New York City with my husband and can be found on Twitter @Jenna_Goudreau, Facebook, and Google+.

'Bend, Not Break' Author Ping Fu Responds To Backlash

Last week, I published what I believed to be a story of one woman’s triumph against incredible odds. Ping Fu, founder of tech company Geomagic, which is in the process of being acquired by publicly traded 3D Systems, penned the new memoir Bend, Not Break (Portfolio/Penguin), detailing her story as a child during China’s Cultural Revolution who was separated from her parents, tortured and raped, assigned to work in factories rather than attend a formal school, and eventually deported to the US to make a new life for herself as an entrepreneur. Since the publication of my piece, first in English and then in Chinese on ForbesChina.com, along with coverage by othermediaoutlets serious questions have been raised in the Chinese blogosphere and elsewhere about Fu’s credibility.

Writers on my blog have been critical too. Commenter Fugang Sun wrote: “I experienced Culture Revolution and know a lot horrific stories happened in that era in person…. However, most of the stories listed in article are faked.” In the same vein, another skeptical commenter wrote: “There are already many voices questioning the validity of Ms. Fu’s story. From my view and experience it may very well be what it is: a story.”

I followed up with Fu to get her response to the backlash. To accusations that she exaggerated or fabricated parts of her story, Fu says there were subtleties that were lost between the American and Chinese audiences. One point of contention was that a child would not have been sent to a “labor camp” (my word choice). Fu says in China this literally means a prison camp for forced labor and is inaccurate. However, she says she did live alone beginning at age 8 with her younger sister in a one-room dormitory at an evacuated university campus controlled by the government. She confirms that instead of going to school she was assigned to factory work at age 9. The press release for the memoir refers to her as a “child soldier” and a “factory worker.” However, Chinese critics questioned how she came to be a child factory worker, saying it was a prized job during that period. Fu responds that she was not a “worker” in the traditional Chinese understanding because she was not paid for this work and did it in lieu of formal schooling.

It also raised eyebrows that she said she had been exiled or deported from China, when there is no official record of it. When I asked her to address it, Fu says “exile” is not the correct word, despite that it’s used in the press release being sent to media members to promote her memoir. The release first states “Ping was deported,” and later repeats “Ping was exiled.”

“In the beginning of the book I said the Chinese government quietly deported me,” she says. In fact, it is the first line. “We could say that was a literary interpretation. I was asked to leave. My father helped me to find a visa to the US. I was told not to talk about it or to file for political asylum. My interpretation was I involuntary left China….If someone wants to say this is not deportation, fine. That’s my interpretation.” Who asked her to leave? “The police,” she says.

When I first interviewed her, Fu described being taken in by the police shortly before her college graduation, not being able to graduate and being asked to leave the country. She said, “I was told to leave, and I had two weeks.” I looked back at the timeline she presented and noticed that there was a span of six to seven years between when she took her Suzhou University entrance exam (1977) and arrived in the US (January 1984). When I asked her to confirm it, she says she didn’t start college until the fall of 1978, which she says would have put graduation in the fall of 1982, and that she got in trouble with the police in 1983. I asked: Isn’t there a timing gap of a year? “That’s true. That’s a good question,” Fu says. “Let me go back and verify that one.”

Late last night, Fu’s publicist emailed me that they “confirmed that Ping started school in 1978 and left school in the fall of 1982 after being held by the government. She arrived in the U.S. on January 14, 1984.” So she was at home for over year before the police asked her to leave China? “The government asked Ping to leave a couple of weeks after her release,” the publicist wrote me. “However, getting a passport was very difficult, if not impossible, at that time. Even though Ping was asked to leave China, she had to wait for an official passport to be issued.”

When asked how she would respond generally to the criticism, Fu says: “Whatever the report, they should go with my book. Most people complaining have not read my book.” As of now, however, the book has not been translated or distributed in China.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

What happened then in China doesn’t necessarily mean it had happened to the author – hope you agree with me on this one. As long as the book is classified as autobiography, the principle is simple – major events should be true. I was old enough to remember the hardship that cultural revolution brought to me and my family, and I am certainly not in favour of it and the Chinese government, but does it mean we could lie about our past in order to benefit from the lies? I don’t know what your wife feels about it, but I am truly offended by Ms Fu as she has pretended to be one of us, while she was actually one of the Red Guards, who had the reputation in those horrendous acts, which includes murdering your wife’s grandfather.

Would she have a problem looking at the photo that shows the author was wearing a Red Guard armband?

This is a matter of fact-checking, talking in generality does not help: if I ask an owner if his restaurant meets the sanitary requirement and he replies that Chinese food is delicious in general and his wife loves it, then I have every reason to believe that either he is trying to fool me or he does not understand the question.

Please refer to one of the photos Ms Fu has provided to the journalist, in which she happily posed as a proud Red Guard among a group of them. http://www.fastcompany.com/3004166/bend-not-break-leadership-lessons-resilience-amid-struggle

Are you kidding me ? Did you forget Fu ping is a one of Red Guard? You mean you experienced that time and you still believe that the enemy of the communist can be deported to the US not killed or put in prison, then I know you are a liar too. How much did she pay you for this?

I don’t understand why Ping Fu always lie. What is her purpose? Money? Fame? Political benefits? Or just a green card?

Anyway, we must admit that she is very clever, because she lied, and than to get what she wants.

For example, she said she was gang raped by red guards when she was a 10-year-old girl.

However, let me tell you something about the real culture revolution: A. Masturbation is a rogue crime, the criminals will be shot. B. Sexual fantasies is a kind of rogue crime too, the cirminals will spend twelve years in prison C. If anyone raped a female, he’ll definitely be shot.

Americans are very difficult to understand, in the Cultural Revolution, Chinese as abstinent as Puritans, kiss, love and sex are all shameful.

By the way, my father was born in a family of intellectuals in South China in 1957. His background is very similar with Fu’s. His grandfather got a master’s degree in law in Japan in earlier 20th century. And his father, my grandfather was graduated from Whampoa Military Academy. His family members mostly worked for the government of the Republic of China before 1949.

So my grandparents were purged during the cultural revolution, my grandfather was brought to Jiamusi labor camp of Northeast China.

Although my father is unable to enter any college because his family background, but no one is persecuting him and his sister in the Culture Revolution.

My father hates Chinese Community Party and current government. So he sent me to the United States. I got my master degree here and maybe I will live here. I don’t want to back to China because I don’t like CCP too. However, I still want to say, you should be shame for your lies, Ping Fu. And I also feel pity for you, Ping, because you lost your soul.

P.S.

Hi Ms. Gourdreau,

I appreciation for your professional ethics. And I belive you will seek the turth and report it. I think China and America should be friends, not enemis. But there are only a few Americans know the real China. I hope American medias will create a bridge for them, thant will be great for both of all. Thank you.

It’s not such a phenomenon at all to my understanding. For Chinese oversea, we wish our group has as many successful persons as possible, I wish every single of Chinese here are successful, and that way, I think we can get more chances to be even better. All of us are not trying to attack one of our group. But not a lot of people can tolerate lies. If all she said are true, we will all give her the best we can say. But unfortunately, none of what she said is true. If in fact, one of your ethnic group were going big and lied about everything he/she did, will you just prize him/her (cover him/her up) but not telling the truth? Will you? Even if the person who’s lying were your family member, will you feel great about all his/her lies?